Poland quibbles over who’s a refugee and who’s a migrant

WARSAW — Beata Szydło sought to deflect pressure for Poland to take asylum seekers by telling the European Parliament that the country is already doing its share.

“You speak of migration — that’s a serious problem. Poland has taken in around a million refugees from Ukraine. People whom no one wanted to help,” Poland’s prime minister said during a debate this week on the state of democracy.

The problem? Szydło’s numbers weren’t quite right. Poland actually received 4,616 asylum applications from Ukrainians in the past two years. Of those, two were accepted, according to the government’s Office for Foreigners.

It is true that there may be about a million Ukrainians in Poland. But the vast majority are economic migrants in the country on work visas, as an angry Ukrainian ambassador pointed out the next day.

“In reality there are no Ukrainian refugees in Poland,” Andriy Deshchytsia told the Ukrinform news agency.

Warsaw claims Szydło was merely drawing attention to the scale of Ukrainian migration to Poland.

“From a formal point of view, it’s true that they don’t have refugee status,” said Rafał Bochenek, the government’s spokesman.

Dodging the question

However, Szydło’s lax use of data is prompting suspicions that Polish leaders are using Ukrainian labor migration to avoid taking in refugees as part of the European Union’s moribund relocation program — something that’s deeply unpopular in ethnically homogenous Poland. Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), warned last year that migrants carry “parasites and protozoa.”

“It’s probably advantageous for the Poles to say that they already supposedly have a problem with refugees from Ukraine,” said Deschchytsia. “The presence of Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland is simply used to oppose arguments in EU discussions on taking in refugees.”

This isn’t the first time Ukrainians have appeared in the discussion about whether Poland should take in refugees, said Piotr Tyma, head of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland, which represents the country’s Ukrainian minority rather than migrant workers.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling party Law and Justice | Getty

Andrzej Duda, the PiS-backed president, brought up Ukraine when discussing Europe’s migration crisis with his German counterpart Joachim Gauck in Berlin in August.

“Poland is also facing a wave of refugees,” said Duda, speaking of “thousands” of Ukrainians who have crossed the border and are filing requests to stay in Poland. He did not mention the success rate of those applications.

Poland has come under pressure from Germany to be more helpful in taking asylum seekers, but Duda warned that the EU should take Poland’s Ukraine situation into account when speaking about European solidarity in the face of the migration crisis. If the conflict in eastern Ukraine escalates, Ukrainians will “head towards the Polish border,” overwhelming the country’s asylum policy, he added.

That focus on Ukraine reflects the Polish case that the main threat to Europe comes from the east, said Piotr Buras, Warsaw director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. But most of the rest of the EU is much more worried about the immense surge of migrants and refugees from the Middle East.

The contrast with Germany

The round number of a million Ukrainians also happens to be the same as the number of asylum seekers who arrived in Germany last year.

Poland has agreed to take in 7,000 refugees as part of the EU’s relocation plan, although the government has made clear it isn’t enthusiastic.

Polish officials aren’t backing away from their contention that the country is already bearing its share of the burden.

In the wake of the Cologne sex attacks and the growing worry over whether Muslim migrants can be smoothly assimilated into Europe, some Poles see Ukrainians as a preferable option. They are Christians (albeit of a slightly different flavor than the Roman Catholic Poles), speak a similar language and share a lot of culture and history. A poll last month by the CBOS organization found 60 percent of Poles support taking refugees from Ukraine, compared to 42 percent for refugees in general.

Warsaw’s standard line has been that, as long as the war is limited to a corner of Ukraine, people fleeing the fighting can find shelter in more peaceful parts of the country. Taking in large numbers of refugees would also support Russia’s portrayal of Ukraine as a failed state.

By the end of last year, the number of registered internally displaced people in Ukraine exceeded 1.6 million, according to the UNHCR. If they start leaving Ukraine, the EU could see a “snowball effect,” said a study by the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.

Despite the fuss caused by Szydło’s reference, Polish officials aren’t backing away from their contention that the country is already bearing its share of the burden.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski on Thursday emphasized the “million Ukrainians” his country “took in” was in the context of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

“That should be taken into account during European discussions on the migration crisis,” he said.

bogdan

Distinguishing between economic migrants and refugees seems to be a major dilemma for the whole of the EU. Btw there is a civil war taking place in the Ukraine, or does that one not count?

Posted on 1/22/16 | 9:26 AM CEST

Veritas-Semper

Ms. Chapman – come again – how does this differ from the 1.1 million migrants in Germany? Aren’t the overwhelming majority of the 1.1 million “welcomed guests” in fact economic migrants seeking a better life specifically in Germany because of its outstanding standard of living (and benefits, I might add)?

So, what exactly is the argument here? Both millions chose to seek their target land to improve their lives.

The difference is that the German “welcomed guests” were invited by Angela Merkel and now she does not know what do with all of them so that she wants to foist them on the rest of the EU. Against their will. I don’t believe that Poland is foisting her migrant problem on Germany or any other EU member.

That is the difference, Ms. Chapman.

Posted on 1/22/16 | 11:56 AM CEST

rex

Call them as you like, there is around a million of Ukrainians in Poland, truly only 4 tsd formally registered as “refugees” and the rest mostly economic migrants but de facto also refugees, the reason is that a registration would turn their status from workers into beneficiaries of the social support system and would play into hands of Russian propaganda declaring that UA is a failing state and its people have to escape the “fascist regime in Kiev” (to explain the discontent of the Ukrainian ambassador with using the “refugee” term)

Posted on 1/22/16 | 3:24 PM CEST

tad

Mrs Szydlo’s statement of ‘million Ukrainian refugees’ is just another lie. Ukrainians who live and work in Poland find it deeply insulting.

Posted on 1/22/16 | 6:01 PM CEST

Strindberg

Poles must not be “so” generous with the label “refugee” as the Germans? The human or moral imperative of Germany played by Angela Merkel is ridiculous. Why not stick to Dublin II and apply the law & regulations?

Posted on 1/22/16 | 6:09 PM CEST

pexi

It’s right “refugees” is not the good word for the migrants coming in Germany, we should call them “invited workers by merkel” …

@Veritas-Semper Your comments are correct. Merkel’s invitees are now sought to be foisted on the entire EU. Poland must not accept Ms Merkel’s guests under any circumstances.

Posted on 1/23/16 | 3:21 AM CEST

Traveller

Anyone who claims that Poland did not support and welcome Ukrainian citizens in their need (regardless if they are called refugees or asylum seekers or whatever) should go to a small city called Swidnica, where none can actually answer the question how many of them arrived there since 2014 but suddenly they have become a huge part of their community and where accepted with respect and dignity and social status. I have witnessed the process and I was impressed with Polish hospitality. To those who did not see it and have no clue – keep your unsupported comments to yourself. You have no knowledge to share with the readers of this website.